


Old Enough

by doorstepdreams



Series: Missing Scenes [12]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bisexuality, Flirting, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 11:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14259609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doorstepdreams/pseuds/doorstepdreams
Summary: Good ol' college kid shenanigans, flirting, confusion, friendship and being dopey normal young adults. Nursey is extremely into everyone in some way and it's a lot to deal with during a warm spring afternoon. Lardo's sometimes nickname for Ford is F-word, in my mind.Title from the same song by The Raconteurs





	Old Enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RiotKid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiotKid/gifts).



> I realize there's always a certain understandable expectation of sociopolitical themes in a nurseydex fic, particularly as I'm bringing Ford into the majority of this fic. I personally felt like investigating the times when Dex is the person that Nursey and Ford can (sometimes) genuinely get along with, and who has learned some things during his time at Samwell. There's still some tension there, but definitely an effort. I pulled a lot from real life friends and interactions for this, but as a white author I'm absolutely down with anyone letting me know if I've written something that's off or uncomfortable!
> 
> Patient beta courtesy as always by wrathofthestag <3

_Nursey: Phone don’t charge! (lightning emoji)_

_Dex: Thought u were spsed to be eloquent_

_Nursey: … halloo old bean, mine phone doth not charge. Bitch._

_Dex: prob lint in contact point again_

_Nursey: fix iiiiiiiiit_

_Dex: fixing a hair dryer for Ford in dressing rooms. Bring it here._

Derek immediately scrambles up from the tree serving as his afternoon napping place. Spotting a few students he knows from classical studies, he takes on a more languid pace, slowing to an amble as he crosses campus.

The day has been cloyingly humid for May and he won’t show up looking sweaty and eager, as if he had nothing better to do than watch Dex fix his phone. Even though he absolutely is making that his top priority.

The theater is packed with acting and dance students sprawled on every surface, savoring the fully functioning air conditioning. A girl with an expensive-looking DSLR asks Derek to pose by one of the windows, a request that’s too common to feel odd. He gives her his Insta details and shows her friends a lazy grin as he moves on.

The welcome chill of the A/C abruptly cuts off as soon as Derek passes through the stage doors and into the bowels of the dressing rooms and rehearsal spaces. The rabbit warren of passages eventually leads to a long room glowing with mirrored lights on makeup tables.

Envy and arousal flare hot inside his chest when he sees Ford in a gauzy halter dress with no bra, leaning over a shirtless Dex who is sat at one of the makeup stations. They’re both glistening bright in the still air and the scene looks extremely charged.

“Yo,” Derek calls out, maybe a little harshly, making them both look up.

_So what if her sideboob is pressed against his muscular shoulder?_

“Dex said he’d fix my phone,” he says, going for casual and not covetous, as he wanders toward them.

They both acknowledge him but quickly return to their own little world.

_I mean hell, if Dex was even a little bit into girls he wouldn’t be able to sit and concentrate with her laying herself all up on him. It’s no big deal if she just feels comfortable enough to be in his personal space like that._

“You got my boy workin’ for you? I’ve already got dibs on him for all minor electrical repairs, you know.”

He tries to chuckle in a nonchalant way but it comes out kind of stupid. Ford finally looks up at him and rolls her eyes so hard it has to hurt.

Derek checks the stability of a nearby chair before dragging it close to them, swinging one leg over and sitting on it backward. He’s got a prime spot to look at the pixie curls on Ford’s neck where they’ve escaped the wrap that’s holding the rest of her hair in a solid poof at the top of her head.

Derek traces the way her soft, bare arm drapes over Dex’s dappled shoulder. For all Derek’s muddled feelings of jealousy, his aesthetic sense has to admit they make a striking pair: her smooth curves and round face poured over his upright, muscular athlete’s body and focused expression.

Dex is so broad on top and narrow on the bottom that it makes Derek’s mouth water. He’s a perfect contrast to the way Ford fills out the skirt of her dress, making it flared and translucent in the surrounding lights.

Derek sits back and adjusts himself surreptitiously.

“Lookin’ a little overheated there, Dexy my lad.”

Perhaps it’s a bit mean to hide his own semi by trying to embarrass a fellow bro, but there it is.

Dex for his part just continues his meticulous work. “Long as I don’t actually rust over this motor with sweat by the time I’m done, I’ll count it as a win.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Dexy!” Ford’s voice is softer than Derek’s ever heard it, and a little breathy. “And here I’m pressing my hot self all over you.”

She looks at Dex, coy smile at the ready, but only gets a shrug in response.

“It’s fine, I didn’t even notice anyway. You weigh less than Bitty, so.”

“Hmmm, ‘kay,” Ford narrows her eyes at him and breathes tightly out through her nose.

Derek picks up his phone to hide his smug grin. He misses the bashful but meaningful look Dex shoots Ford in the mirror, and the look of surprised acknowledgment she returns him. She pets one hand down his neck in a reassuring, friendly way and they share a quick smile between them.

The intensity in the room eases slightly and Derek contents himself with watching the little game of operation playing out over the hairdryer. He can see Dex’s face clearly in the mirror, set in that surgeon-three-hours-deep level of obsession as his hands do exactly as they’re needed.

Once, he catches Ford catching him. He covers his embarrassment by blowing her a kiss with just his lips to flirt, and maybe annoy her a little.

Dex for his part never looks up from his patient once. That part always gets Derek down deep; the well of intricate knowledge and fierce dedication beneath Dex’s boring SuperCuts hairstyle and unscented soap.

The way everything else around him can be unraveling - people can be shouting and the kitchen garbage can can catch fire - but Dex is on some far off plane of concentration as he pokes and nudges the veins of a cold beast back to life. Nothing is too small to be thrown away and replaced if it can just be fixed. Nothing seems too big and confusing if Dex can do that ‘grounding’ thing and borrow a few seemingly electrically-non-conductive items from the Haus first aid kit.

Sure, Derek knows all about not wasting time trying to find the good underneath the obnoxious or offensive in white classmates. He’s also fully aware that Ford knows this even better than he does.

Yet here they both are, watching William Whiteness Itself Poindexter huddled over a battered old hair dryer as if he were conducting a ritual. There’s something actually stirring and tender behind that thin, slightly-drawn face and those Hennessy-colored eyes.

Ford meets Derek’s eyes in the mirror again and the look they share is something like, ‘Do we really have nothing better to do today than stare at this undeniably cute but extremely basic young man?’

The hair dryer suddenly whirrs to life and Dex gives a small ‘yaaay’ as he holds it up like a newborn. Ford actually claps her hands together and accepts it from him, joyfully switching it on and off again.

“You saved our asses, William! This little bitch would set the department back fifty bucks to replace.”

“And ain’t nobody got time for that!”

The fact that Dex anticipates the responding smack that Ford gives him is proof that the joke and retaliation are familiar and comfortable.

“Racially offensive _and_ an out-of-date meme, Poindexter,” she huffs and beckons to Derek. “Now we both gotta slap you.”

Derek makes a show of pushing the chair aside and stalking over to Dex, who starts giggling and cowing into Ford, who just pushes him away.

Two little slaps on his cheeks are all the punishment Derek visits upon him. The way Dex’s eyes screw up tight with each one is not cute at all. Not even a little. Derek isn’t even flustered.

“Bruh, you get so damn extra overheated when you concentrate. You should see the fuchsia sunset going on all over here,” he teases, waving a finger annoyingly close to Dex’s face and neck. “This why redheads are going extinct? All allergic to the sun?”

“Fuck you, too!” Dex says with a lopsided grin, moving abruptly so that he knocks against Derek. Of course this makes Derek more determined not to move, and he feels as well as sees every movement as Dex tugs his flannel back on.

There is a moment where Dex instinctively checks his fly by hitching his jeans up that is so achingly boyish, Derek has to make a mental note or five.

He could dedicate a lifetime’s study to the eroticism of freckled, roughened fingers tugging at the waistband of a well-worn pair of blue jeans, watched by someone standing close enough to feel as if the actions were all being performed by themselves… their own hands so close that they brush against those blue jeans, stretched over narrow, muscled hips…

“You two gonna keep having this Degrassi moment or can I go ahead and lock up?”

Both boys huff and move apart. Derek notices Dex smiling a little before Ford switches off the lights and makes them fumble their way through the dark.

Once in the hallway, Derek pauses to let Ford lock the door and walk ahead of them. He gives her an appreciative once-over as she passes.

“Very nice, sis. Very nice.”

“Pssh, get on out of here and take your boy with you, Nurse.”

She looks pleased though, despite her dismissal. _At least one member of her ridiculously hunky hockey team could appreciate the female form._

The boys’ walk back to the Quad under a blessed patch of white cloud, a sweet breeze brushing over their skin all the way. The air is so full of contentment that for a long time, neither Derek nor Dex realizes they’re walking in companionable silence.

Derek decides not to question it. Nor does he question the way Dex walks so close that their knuckles brush against each other in coded bro-hand-holding.

An intense moment sweeps over him, realizing how changed a person Dex is from their freshman year - at least outwardly. Derek spares the briefest of prayers for his own poor, vulnerable heart as it flutters each time their hands meet.

Derek’s phone stays on low battery in his pocket the entire walk, and likely for some time after.

Across campus, Ford meets up with Lardo on her way to the Haus. A quick negotiation ends with Ford agreeing to accompany her there for a drink and a hello to the boys.

Ford takes a glance around before nudging Lardo’s side conspiratorially.

“So don’t go all Bechdel rules on me, but guess who’s gonna fuck?”

Lardo rolls her eyes. “Well clearly they’re dudes, and I know them, and they’ve gotta both be into dudes. Jesus, F-word that could be literally _anyone_.” She shakes her head and mutters about needing more girl friends while Ford waits with a supercilious grin.

“Well? Give me a hint at least!”

Ford holds her hands like C’s at each side of her head. Lardo jumps up and down, dropping colored pencils out of her pockets.

“Ow, fuck! Poindexter!”

Ford nods and then plasters a dopey grin on her face, pretending to trip over her own feet.

Lardo’s eyebrows slide up her forehead and she leers around the lollipop in her mouth.

“Biiiiiiiiitch?”’

Ford nods enthusiastically, swinging her dress with self-satisfaction.

“Biiiiihiiiiiitch!” Lardo yells, fast-waddling to keep up and balance her giant backpack. “Dex and _Nursey_? Seriously?! Ugh, what is it about D-men that they’ve always gotta boner it for each other?”

“Hell if I know! But I’ll be damned if I play hag for Nurse just so he can show off around Freckles. I’ve got two family-sized swimming pools under each tit from wearing this damn dress without a bra, and all for nothing.”

Lardo smirks and tickles her fingers up Ford’s naked back, making her shiver and giggle.

“Not like any of them are worth trying to impress anyway. You could show up wearing a pizza costume, and watch at least two of them try to hide erections.”

Ford laughs at Lardo’s haggard expression, recalling past Haus parties.

“Anyway, I’ve already been there. This set is your problem now.”

Ford stops on the sidewalk outside the Haus and narrows her eyes.

“You… you’re an asshole, that’s what you are.”

Lardo spins in a circle and curtsies.

They’re only two steps inside the Haus when Bitty and Holster appear at the kitchen doorway. Holster has a wine bottle and two glasses in one hand while Bitty holds out two more glasses.

“We heard y’all comin’ down the road and got ourselves ready!”

“The price per glass is one steaming plate of whatever you were just gossiping about.”

**Author's Note:**

> on tumblr


End file.
